1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to computer systems, and particularly to a system and method for efficiently managing updating of software on computers of a network.
2. Description of Related Art
System management products, such as those that monitor software distribution, or manage security products, security intrusion, and storage area networks, are employed in many organizations. Such products are typically sold at both the enterprise level and department level. For example, high ranking individuals of an organization decide to purchase a system management product for use in the entire enterprise, while departmental decisions may be made at a lower level in the organization.
Thus, management products are sold in several usage types, for example, such products and services can be sold at the individual level, workgroup level, department level, division level, and enterprise level. However, purchasing a product at one level within the organization, for example, at the department level, does not mean that the product is implemented at all levels beneath the department level in the same manner. Nor does it mean that earlier purchased versions of the product are automatically dovetailed with the newly purchased level of the product. For example, though a department server may have a system management product implemented thereon, that system management product will not necessarily be distributed to individual workgroup servers, or to individual workstations of the network.
The reasons for this failure of products to “filter down” from higher organizational levels to lower organizational levels often involve individual preferences of people working within the organization. For example, when humans are required to check for or implement updates or new products, other tasks may be deemed of higher importance, delaying implementation of an update. Alternatively, a human operator may decide that the update is unnecessary or may interfere with other work that is being performed.
Furthermore, individuals do not necessarily have the proper incentive to install new software on their systems. Though upgrading to new software may ultimately improve overall enterprise performance and efficiency, from the perspective of an individual within the enterprise, changing to a new software product can produce an immediate loss of productivity as the individual must learn the new software program. Hence, resistance to implementing new software, even when already paid for and available to an individual in a network, may prevent proper distribution of the software to all machines in a given network or section of a network. Other reasons for delaying an update to the software, including a different configuration or choice of policies chosen by the individual responsible for the enterprise level of the organization as opposed to those already in place at the department level.
Therefore, the present state of the art in systems management would benefit from a system and method for more efficiently implementing changes in software in an enterprise, particularly multilevel system management software.